2011 Toyota Yaris Review and Prices

By Chuck Giametta

Table of Contents
2011 Toyota Yaris Review and Prices
2010 Toyota Yaris Review and Prices
2009 Toyota Yaris Quote

2011 TOYOTA YARIS BUYING ADVICE

• The 2011 Toyota Yaris is the best car for you if you want a no-worries fuel-sipper that acts bigger than its tiny size suggests.  

• The 2011 Toyota Yaris leverages light weight and modest power to achieve hybrid-like fuel economy. How does 29 mpg in the city and 35 on the highway sound? And that’s with automatic transmission and room for four adults. Expect 2011 Yaris prices to start at a friendly $13,000 or so. As the most desirable models tickle $16,000, however, you’ll need confidence in your priorities to resist the call of a larger car.   

• Should you wait for the 2011 Toyota Yaris or buy a 2010 Toyota Yaris? Buy the 2010 Yaris. It’s newly fortified with safety features, and Toyota is unlikely to change it for model-year 2011 because a full redesign is in the wings for 2012. Shopping a 2010 not only gets you in on a buyer’s market, it means your new Yaris will have a longer shelf life.  

2011 TOYOTA YARIS CHANGES

• Styling: The 2011 Yaris styling – what there is of it -- will carry over from 2010. So there’s still no chance in hell this tiny Toyota will qualify as teen-bedroom poster material. In fairness, the four-door hatchback does have a certain urban-fashion air. It’s the most appealing of the three Yaris body styles, the others being a hunched-up two-door hatchback and an almost-normal looking four-door sedan. (No other car in the subcompact class has more than two body styles.) As a practical matter, the 2011 Yaris sedan has a smidge more rear-seat leg room than the hatchbacks because it’s slightly longer. But the hatchbacks furnish micro-wagon cargo versatility, an important consideration in an automobile barely 12 feet long. All three body styles have tall rooflines for comfortable, upright seating and coif-clearing head room. The 2011 Yaris dashboard will again mount its instruments in an ergonomically awkward central pod rather than in the more orthodox location in front of the driver. But you’ll feel positively liberated by Yaris’s tight-turning-circle maneuverability and the parking-space freedom of its small size.

• Mechanical: The 2011 Yaris will continue with a 106-horsepower four-cylinder engine and a choice of a five-speed manual transmission or a four-speed automatic. That’s not much muscle, but Yaris weighs just 2,300 pounds, so acceleration is adequate if leisurely. Like every car in this class, Yaris has front-wheel drive, which packages its powertrain above the front tires. It’s the most efficient use of space and puts additional weight over the wheels that propel the car. That’s good for wet-road traction, but isn’t the sort of balance that translates into sporty handling. Yaris nonetheless feels secure in turns as long as cornering speeds don’t exceed the modest lateral grip of its skinny tires. And ride quality over bumps and ruts is amazingly compliant for such a featherweight. Given its humble pretensions, Yaris’s only serious dynamic shortcoming is waywardness in the teeth of a high wind on an open highway, where it can demand lots of steering correction to maintain your heading.

• Features: The 2011 Toyota Yaris isn’t likely to gain features not already available on the 2010 model. Nothing fancy here – no navigation system, leather upholstery, heated seats, or sunroof, for example. But give Toyota credit for including key safety and convenience items as standard equipment on every Yaris. These include antilock brakes, traction control, and an antiskid system, technology that, respectively, helps the car stop, go, and negotiate turns. Head-protecting curtain side airbags also are standard, as is air conditioning and a tilt steering wheel. But low initial prices mean you must move up the Yaris model ladder to get such features as a split-folding rear seatback, rear-window defogger, CD player, cruise control, and power mirrors, windows, and locks. Toyota could conceivably make such items standard on more Yaris models for the 2011, or at least make them more widely available as options. Supplementing the currently optional auxiliary connection for a USB iPod interface would be a fine idea, too.   

2011 TOYOTA YARIS PRICES

• Toyota will not release 2011 Yaris prices until shortly before the model goes on sale in 2010. But estimates are possible based on the car’s pricing history. Note that all prices mentioned in this review include the manufacturer’s mandated destination fee. Toyota’s was $720 for 2009, but Toyotas sold in some Southeastern and Gulf states are delivered by independent distributors and may carry different destination fees.

• Toyota has traditionally offered all three Yaris body styles in Base and uplevel S-model trim. Expect the 2011 Toyota Yaris Base two-door hatchback to be priced from around $13,000 with manual transmission and $13,900 with automatic.

• Look for the 2011 Toyota Yaris Base model four-door hatchback to start around $14,200; it has been available only with automatic transmission. The 2011 Toyota Yaris Base model four-door sedan should be priced from around $14,000 with manual transmission, $14,900 with automatic.     

• Estimated base price for the 2011 Toyota Yaris S model two-door hatchback is around $15,000 with manual transmission, $15,900 with automatic. The 2011 Yaris S model four-door hatchback is likely to start around $16,000; it too has come only with automatic transmission. History suggests the 2011 Yaris S model sedan will be priced from around $16,000 with manual transmission, $16,900 with automatic.

2011 TOYOTA YARIS FUEL ECONOMY

• No 2011 fuel-economy estimates were released in time for this review. But with carryover powertrains, the 2011 Toyota Yaris should repeat its 2010 ratings. That means 29/36 mpg (city/highway) with manual transmission and 29/35 mpg with automatic.

2011 TOYOTA YARIS RELEASE DATE

• The 2011 Toyota Yaris should be in showrooms during August 2010.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE TOYOTA YARIS

• Expect the redesigned 2012 Yaris to wear an evolution of the 2007-2011 generation’s egg-shaped bodies. Dimensions aren’t likely to change much, and front-wheel drive will return. Some reports say the next Yaris could adapt a version of the highly efficient platform that underpins Toyota’s iQ city car. Already on sale in Europe and Japan, that petite hatchback is destined for sale in the U.S. as a Smart fighter from Toyota’s youth-oriented Scion division.

• Toyota will have to scrutinize the sales numbers and the competitive field to decide if the 2012 Yaris warrants all three current body types. The automaker will also need to determine whether the Cyclops dashboard layout should survive. The basic Yaris design is sold in both left- and right-hand-drive markets around the world. Anything that accommodates cost-efficient assembly with minimal re-engineering has a lot going for it, even if it does make for an odd driving experience.

• Return of a small four-cylinder gas engine is a certainty. Fuel economy will be a priority, and odds are that Toyota will add a gas-electric hybrid model to the next-generation Yaris lineup. It may not come until model year 2013 or so, and maybe not even under the Yaris badge. But the intent would be a hybrid priced well under $20,000, positioned below the larger Toyota Prius, and aimed squarely at the Honda Insight and at a possible Honda Fit hybrid.    

2011 TOYOTA YARIS COMPETITION

• Honda Fit: It’s not fast in any traditional sense, but no low-cost subcompact has sportier road manners than this capsule-shaped five-seat wagon. Room for people and cargo is astonishing, given Fit’s small footprint. And fuel economy is outstanding at 28/35 mpg with automatic transmission. Prices start in the mid-$15,000s, and Fit won’t be redesigned before 2014 or so.

• Hyundai Accent: More features per dollar than anything else in this class, and solidly assembled, too. Not terribly refined however, even for the entry-level market. This South Korean nameplate has been available as a two-door hatchback and four-door sedan, but Hyundai is ready to retire the 2006-vintage design and replace it with an all-new car for model-year 2011 or 2012.

• Nissan Versa: Another weird looking tall-roof lozenge, but a champ for interior roominess and relatively sophisticated in driving manner. Versa comes as a geek-chic four-door hatchback and a drab four-door sedan, both destined for replacement in model-year 2012. Note that the Nissan Cube clothes the current Versa platform and powertrain in a cartoonish four-door wagon body.